One week later and with the exception of dot.calm/49 Stories (Jfry Craig’s installation at Latitude) the inaugural test of STEMCell activity in Edmonton has concluded. The performances, the screenings and the contents of many Steam Whistle bottles have been packed away. What Cellular smatterings continue to resonate in the minds and memories of those who participated? Most significant may be the programming of pathways yet to come.

In knocking around where to begin in reflecting on STEMCell, I find myself returning again and again to aDemod’s performance at Latitude. aDemod is a recently formed Edmonton based collective of ‘multimedia artists exploring the juncture between sound, film, video, interactivity and performance.’ Last Friday’s performance featured film projection by aAron munson, a music feed from Shawn Pinchbeck and a live video mix by kelleY boleN. Shawn’s piece was created on custom designed software tapping into sound files of ‘soundscapes, environments, precomposed snippets and noises’. Shawn describes this work as ‘live improvised acousmatic soundscape.’ The piece that was played (and played with that night) had been created earlier that day in Estonia and uploaded to the internet. aAron and kelleY have collaborated with Shawn before and mentioned afterwards that they’re familiar with some of his sequencing patterns, enabling them to anticipate the helix-like shifts that occur along the way.

I asked kelleY a day or so before the festival to talk a bit about her work and her process. She explained that she is inspired by ‘anything that catches my eye as a static entity that I need to make move with stop motion…that (hopefully) makes you think.’ kelleY takes these clips and digitally projects from her laptop as she mixes using Josh Goldberg’s freeware Max/MSP Dervish program. She recently took a class at FAVA in cameraless animation and ‘loves the idea of something created with such a hands on, old school method; material that is then digitized.’ kelleY mentioned that one of her challenges in live performance is inviting the audience to engage and interact. On Saturday, her projections featured arrows and the directive ‘Push Me’: the flowing mix of images temporarily suspended until a response was received with audience members approaching a wall and pushing accordingly (or, pushing the Dervish mixer as some wag did). I find myself returning again and again to aDemod’s performance as a portal into thinking about what STEMCell achieved, what it sought to present and what the implications might be for the future, not only for the festival but for Edmonton’s arts community.

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In viewing the works screened at Metro as part of STEMCell’s Film Festival, I was reminded yet again that across the country there are many, many prolific media art production centres. Each centre has its own mandate, yet operates under certain non-varied principles: non-profit; artist-run; committed to the production, exhibition and distribution of independent media art. Represented at the film festival were 40 works and 16 centres. In Alberta, there are 6 artist-run film and video production centres: 5 in Calgary (Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers, NUTV, Quickdraw Animation Society, herland, EMMEDIA) and 1 (FAVA) in Edmonton. This isn’t news to anyone who creates non-industry film and video in Alberta. But reflecting on the works that were shown and the proliferation of work being created elsewhere invites consideration. What’s happening here and what isn’t? Or, hasn’t. What’s new and what isn’t and why.

In an increasingly DIY media culture, why would anyone need a co-op? If you can buy your own computer, access software, noodle about in the comfort of your own home and/or deluxo studio space, what need would you have for a co-op? Okay, maybe you don’t have all of your own gear. You may need to rent a camera. Or a sound recorder. But you can do that at other places. You may have to pay more but you can get solid, reliable do-the-job gear. And any co-op advocate will tell you that it isn’t just about the gear. And any experienced gal will tell you, it isn’t just about the tools. It’s how you use them. Then what is it about? What makes a co-op a thriving, vital, relative entity and not just a discount gear house? The screenings of the shorts at STEMCell offered an opportunity to reflect on the critical junctions of creation, presentation and context. Generating from the centre and moving outwards…

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‘Non-traditional uses of media art.’ Following STEMCell, this is how I began to talk about some of the work that I had seen to anyone who hadn’t attended or heard of the festival. BLANK was most often the expression that I was faced with in response. A friend and fellow co-op member referred to ‘all those experimental films’ at the festival. But wasn’t that the whole point of STEM Cell? To present work that might not otherwise be experienced here, at least not in a way that galvanized individual pieces into a cohesive yet disparate whole. And isn’t one of the objectives of a media arts co-op to foster innovative work, not only through available resources of cameras, projectors and editing suites but through discourse and dialogue around what is being created? In this context, ‘experimental’ is redundant: the co-op should be the lab hub where formulas are being tried, tested and proven. Especially now when it’s so very easy to just stay at home or go elsewhere. In this sense, experimental feels too much like ‘alternative music’: what’s really alternative anymore? Isn’t this just a grab bag term that doesn’t sum up a genre of music but attempts to establish credibility through distance from the mainstream? In co-op culture, we’re already there: in an environment that isn’t mandated by market values and prescribed circulations, how do you go further out when you’re already outside? By being supported from within.

At aDemod’s performance I found myself transfixed yet wondering how the experience might be varied. It wasn’t so much that I wanted to be up and walking around (I was seated on one of the many chairs in the performance space) as I wanted to be lying on the floor. Could aAron and kelleY’s images be projected on the ceiling? If so, how would the audience be engaged in interaction? Would it be possible to involve sound responses such as clapping or foot stomps as an alternative to ‘Push Me’? Surely the creation of an experiential installation involves time, space and funds to fully explore the possibilities. And isn’t it worthwhile to invest in the facilitation of this happening here? Because it already is. And it has been for sometime.

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Through STEMCell, we were invited to take a look at other ways of looking. Fresh perspectives on documenting and narrating our experience. Are we seeing things any differently? Are we inspired to attempt other ways of presenting our own work? Are we questioning existing spaces and practices of exhibition? Are we less inhibited in discussing concepts we don’t quite grasp? Were you turned off by work that felt too distant or cerebral? Were you touched by work that moved you? A definitive STEMCell is one that is unspecialized but with the potential for growth through division and that gives rise to other specialized cells. Jfry Craig wrote that ‘co-ops have to remember that while funding arty is cool, sometimes art should be popular as well.’ Could it be that one of the most radical outcomes of STEM Cell would be unanticipated exponential growth with vast appeal? At least for now we’re guided by a common desire: to make things move.

Leslea Kroll